


A Forest of Diamonds and Snow

by readinglikewildfire



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 04:01:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11005560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readinglikewildfire/pseuds/readinglikewildfire
Summary: Viviane and Kallias reunion after he comes back from Under the Mountain and he asks her to marry him





	A Forest of Diamonds and Snow

Viviane had been slowly weeding through files, stacks of papers, and reports confirming the movement of more of their resources towards the western border of the Winter Court. 

Amarantha and her forces had been particularly brutal to the villages and towns set up there and they needed food and blankets and temporary shelter. 

In the years since Kallias had been trapped Under the Mountain, Viviane had been offering shelter in their small city to those who made it. 

Viviane ran a hand down her face and let out a deep sigh, she couldn’t focus−not on this. Not when she had just heard of the news from Under the Mountain. 

He was coming home. 

The details on how, exactly, he had gotten out, were unclear; but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was coming home.

In the days and hours waiting for things to get settled, waiting for him to come back, Viviane had tried to keep herself occupied, tried to think of anything to do that would distract her from the crushing weight of not seeing him for fifty years.

Cauldron, what would she even say to Kallias? Fifty years she had searched and searched to find a way to free him, to bring Kallias back to her, and she never had. And now, in a mere matter of moments, or hours, or days, he would be back, he would be free. Free to feel the cold wind blow across his face, free to use that foreboding ice magic that rested under his veins to make it snow. 

There was a slam of a door in the foyer downstairs and Viviane’s heart stopped dead in her chest and she let out a noise that could have been a sob.

Before she could even think about the next few seconds, her body took over and she jumped to her feet, running down the stairs so fast she almost lost her footing on one of the steps. She slowed down as she stood in front of him. 

Kallias was thinner, less muscular, but fifty years in a prison would do that to someone. His skin was an ashen color, but his eye were the usual bright blue they had always been. 

Fifty years. It took her fifty years to realize what she felt for him. 

Kallias had kept this secret from her for so long, not wanting to risk her safety, and yet he hadn’t understood that she wouldn’t have wanted to be without him. She would have gone under that mountain with him, just so he wouldn’t have had to suffer those daily horrors alone. 

Of course she knew why he had kept her distanced from him, and at the time she had been broken and sad that her friend had turned High Lord, only to forget about her, but when Kallias had flung out that power to tell her that he loved her, to tell her what was happening to him, she forgave him, and she had understood why he did it.

So as Kallias stood in the foyer of the Winter palace, Viviane did not hesitate as she reached up to cup his cold face in her hands and brought his mouth down to hers.

Kissing Kallias was like a missing piece of her had finally shifted into place. His lips were warm and soft and the kiss was gentle. Her hands were on his cheeks and he seemed to come to his senses and wrapped his arms around her back. Kallias smelled like pine and fresh air. Wind and snow. The smell of him cleared Viviane’s lungs.

Viviane was dizzy from want and desire and just pure undiluted happiness that he was here.

He moved his mouth off her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. Viviane wrapped her arms under his shoulders as one of his hands twined in her hair and his chin rested on the top of her head. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and just breathed him, running a soothing hand up and down his back. Viviane felt a drop of something fall onto her head and realized that he was crying. She pulled back from him and brushed his tears away with her thumbs, kissing him on the sweetly on the cheek.

“I love you too, Kallias.” She didn’t dare whisper it; for fear that he wouldn’t hear her. 

Fifty years Viviane had waited to tell him those words, silent tears ran down her face, “My love,” he said, “You can’t cry too.” and as he laughed, the hole in Viviane’s chest began to close up, filled with so much love and joy and happiness.

Kallias started to sway, they both did, and she sat them down on the floor right there in the middle of the foyer.

“I love you.” he whispered to her, “I have my whole life.” She had only heard those words one other time and they had been spoken in desperation and anguish. Now he said them lovingly and slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.

Viviane wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, wrapped against each other−she sat in his lap and he rested his forehead against her collarbone−both of them just content to stay there together for as long as possible. Viviane couldn’t believe that he was in front of her and she thought that Kallias might be thinking the same thing from the way his hands ran down her arms every so often and he shuddered against her.

Hours passed, or maybe it was only a few minutes, but Kallias pulled away from her and he seemed to want to tell her something, but couldn’t meet her gaze, like he didn’t know how to tell her.

“Kallias?” she began.

“Viviane, you’re my mate.” he waited a moment to let his words sink in, then continued, “That’s why I kept you on border patrol all those years leading up to Under the Mountain.” he swallowed again and held her gaze, “Because I didn’t want her finding out about you, using you against me.” 

“We’re mates?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” he whispered. There was sadness and worry in his eyes, but he nodded. Viviane hadn’t felt the bond yet but she believed him when he said it. A wave of insurmountable joy crashed through her. This beautiful strong male was her mate. She pulled him closer and kissed him again. She never wanted to stop kissing Kallias. 

Kallias stood them up and pressed his forehead against her own, taking in a deep breath before he withdrew. 

He bent down and lifted one knee up, “Marry me, Viviane. Make me the happiest male in all of Prythian.”

Viviane had never seen him so frantic before, but she had also never seen him smile so wide and freely. Her heart ached as she looked down at him, a smile spreading across her own face.

“Yes.” she told him, “Yes, yes, yes, yes.” she laughed as he stood up and spun her around, burying his face in her neck. 

All Viviane had ever wanted was for Kallias to come home safe and in one piece; this was so much more than she could ever has asked for, but she would thank the mother and the cauldron every damn day for what they gave her.

An hour earlier, Viviane had never known such happiness, as her and Kallias had crept out of the palace, the occupants unaware that their High Lord had returned home. 

They had crept out and they had found a priestess and she had married her best friend.

Now they returned home and she had taken him up to his office, the one that she had been using for the past fifty years.

When he entered, Kallias looked around. He noticed the papers on the desk, the drink glasses scattered around, a weapon here and there…

“I haven’t thanked you yet,” he held her hand, “For protecting them all this time. You’ve done a great job, better than I could have ever done.” he laughed as he kissed her lips. “Maybe you should be High Lord,” he joked.

Kallias laughed about it, but Vivian could see that leaving her hear had hurt him just as much as him being in Under the mountain had hurt her. Fifty years had gone by and he had no idea if she was alright, if she was angry at him. She wondered if he had heard about the children. She would have to tell him soon.

“Kallias−” she began.

“No, Viv.” He said gently. “Not tonight, lets not talk about it tonight.” The meetings could wait. The stories could wait. As much as Viviane desperately wanted to know how Amarantha had died and how he had gotten out, she agreed. It could wait; she had… other plans for tonight. She gave him a feline smirk, and he knew just what she was thinking. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room. 

“I have other plans tonight, and they don’t involve discussing battle plans,” he said. “As much as I would love to listen to all the wonderful plans you have swirling around in that beautiful head of yours.” He pressed a kiss below her ear and when he pulled back he smiled at her. Kallias’ promising smile practically set Viviane on fire, her toes curling.

He brought her to his room. Viviane had been staying there for the past twenty years. 

After so long without him, she was afraid she would never see him again and had occupied his room as a way to fill the Kallias shaped hole in her chest.

“Tonight,” he whispered a breath from her lips, his eyes heavy with want, “tonight, I’m going to make love to my wife. My mate.”

Kallias pulled her close and kissed her, his hands becomming more desperate on her, trailing past her hips to grip her face. 

He held her face gently in his hands as his tongue brushed against the seam of her lips and she opened her mouth to his. Viviane ran her hands down his strong chest, and his hands guided her mouth against his.

She backed him up against the bed until he was sitting down on the edge and she sat down on top of him, straddled between his legs. 

Kallias’ hands roamed her thighs and ran along her back, pushing her further against him. She reached down to peel of his shirt, pulling back from the kiss to enjoy the view. 

As he played with the ties on the back of her own dress, Viviane ran her fingers along the waist band of his pants. Playfully tugging the band there and running her fingers along him. She nipped at his ear and kissed his neck and Kallias let out a groan that made heat pool in her core.

Once the laces of her dress were undone and the dress was off, Kallias let his fingers softly brush her skin as he took her in, then flipped them over so that she was pinned beneath him.

Viviane reached between her to undo to lace of his pants where he was straining and made quick work of pulling them off and tossing them to the side of the bed.

He kissed a path down from her jaw, to her neck, then her collarbone, kissing down the valley of her chest before he took one of her nipples in his mouth. She sighed at the feeling on his mouth on her and threaded her fingers through his soft white hair. His other hand was massaging her breast, pinching and rolling her nipple between his fingers. Viviane’s breathing spiked and became heavier, and just as she let out a moan, he moved from her breast and traveled lower down her body. He kissed down the planes of her stomach before resting in between her legs. He looked up at her and placed a tantalizing kiss at the apex of her thighs.

He kissed the inside of her thighs as he slowly pulled off her undergarments, then he brushed his tongue through her center and Viviane let out quiet moan.

His strong hands wrapped around her hips to keep her pinned in place, to stop her from squirming so much. She moaned again as she tried to grind against his mouth, helpless to the pleasure of him tasting her. Viviane couldn’t form thoughts, every sense in her body focused on her husband between her legs. When she gasped for a breath, her chest rising rapidly, he looked up at her from between her thighs. The sight practically unhinged her right there.

She tangled her hands in his hair and he growled against her center. Her breathing was fast and uneven and she was close, so close. She told him as much.

“Kallias-,” Viviane covered her mouth, searching for something to hold onto because she was very near to falling off the edge of the world.

Kallias gripped her hand by her side and interlaced their fingers as he worked his tongue faster before sending her over the edge, her breathing coming in short gasps before she let out a deep moan.

Before her breathing could slow she reached for him and pulled him towards her.

As Kallias again came over her he kissed her neck, biting the skin there softly, and making sure to leave marks behind. Viviane hoped her left marks, wanted him too. She wanted them to last for days because she never wanted to forget this moment.

Kallias wasted no time in nudging her legs further apart and thrusting into her.

She was dripping for him, and when he began to move something clicked into place. She kissed him again and again as he moved in and out of her.

“Mine,” she growled, nipping at his bottom lip. “My mate.” Kallias smile was wicked as he pulled back slightly to run a broad hand from her throat down to her thighs, then back up to reach for her hand as he kissed their entwined hands.

His pace became quicker and their breathing faster, even as his hands were gentle with her, would always be gentle with her, would always love her-

Viviane moved her hips in time with his, grinding against him and making Kallias hiss in pleasure. She kissed him over and over and both of their bodies became slick with sweat. Every inch of Viviane tightened and her control broke as he whispered into her soul, along that mate bond that shown so bright and clearly now, “I love you.”

His name feel from her mouth as she climaxed. Over and over she breathed,

Kallias, Kallias, Kallias,

As release tore through her body again, she brought Kallias with her.

Silence fell, interrupted only by their panting breaths. Viviane took her mates face between her hands and made him look at her. His eyes were sparkling blue, like ice chips hewn from a glacier.

Viviane smiled at Kallias as she let the mating bond pull between them.

Both of them laid there, lazily touching each other, wrapped in each others arms.

Kallias laid there as Viviane kissed the base of his throat. “I’ll be right back.” she whispered against his skin. He whined at the loss her warmth and reached out an arm to follow her.

He watched Viviane disappear in the closet momentarily before returning with a box in her hands.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and he sat up a bit more as well. She was still blissfully naked and he admired her once more. Love for his mate soared through his chest at the sight of her in his room, a slight smile on her lips.

She opened the box and a beautiful crown of ice was held before him. 

His crown.

The one he had worn under the mountain was not his true one, he had left it back at the palace that day. Viviane, it seemed, had taken care of it, for it sparkled under the dim lighting of the room.

She shifted closer and brushed down some of his hair that she had misplace. He smiled at the memory, and then she placed the diamond and ice crown atop his head and kissed his lips once before pulling back.

She looked on at him in loving admiration, he pulled her closer to him and leaned her back on the bed again and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for taking care of it for me.” he gae her a roguish grin.

Kallias leaned in to kiss her neck, Viviane laughing beneath him as he did. Kallias took the crown from off his head and placed it above her own.

Viviane stopped laughing as his crown perched precariously atop her white hair. She looked like a queen.

“What?” she asked when she noticed his gaze. 

“I want you to wear my crown.” he told her, wickedness sliding into his voice. “Only the crown.”

Viviane smiled and he leaned in smoothly to brush a kiss to her lips and pressed her back against the soft pillows…


End file.
